katoktm4

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See you next summer!

Sitting in Salt Lake City waiting for my last leg of this 14 hour flight today. Soon to be home and glad to be back in the USA. A few final notes from Ecuador.

I have traveled a lot of places in this world, and never have I met a more friendly, generous, and kind people. They are beautiful on the inside and beautiful on the outside. So many Ecuadorians still dress in traditional clothes and hair. Stunning to see.

We learned through the Dutch owner of the condor park that stray dogs are huge problem in Ecuador. They didn’t seem a problem to us, until they started biting the heels of our horses. Apparently, even when they are pets, people let them outside during the day to fend for their own food. The dogs are now scavenging and eating all the condor food. One town in the south has 25,000 stray dogs! Can you even imagine?

The two people we met who are biking the Pan-American highway from Alaska to Argentina, reported that of all the places they’ve been so far Ecuador is by far the hardest to bike. The mountains are unrelenting. I think I learned that by hiking just a couple of them. And if I never ride a bus in Ecuador again it will be too soon.

If you are a traveler, download the app maps.me. When you have Wi-Fi you can download any map in the world. Then, to use it, you don’t need Wi-Fi or data in order for it to locate you and help you find your way whether walking,driving, on a bus,on a train, or where ever you might be. It helped us find our hotel restaurants parks and trails etc. we even watched ourselves as the bus bumped through the mountains to figure out how many kilometers we had yet to go. And it’s free!

This was a hard trip. It was a great trip. I learned a lot. And We did it large! To some it might not be extreme, but to us we felt the pain every single day but persevered. If you follow Katoktm5 next summer expect it to be a sunny beautiful destination, with a great train system. Perhaps the Greek Islands should be on my mind.

As always, thank you for traveling with me. It Always makes me feel like I’m home when I know people are joining me on my travels. It is more important than you know ❤️

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One last waterfall...the holiest site in Otavalo region...but also very touristy

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More people along the way to waterfall, a hat maker in his home, a bread maker, and a hallway/ home

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People we saw as we walked to waterfall

dogs in background!

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Beads beads beads

. When in traditional clothes, which is often, the women wear necklaces of many layers of gold beads....the tiny beads means you are single...the bigger the gold beads, the longer you have been married. So the very old women wear huge gold beads with many layers...

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Corns, flours and beautiful spices

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Mercado fabrics

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Dogs along the way today... some of the hundreds. The one on his hind legs would grab our wrist but two paws and not let go.

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Walking in the corn

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Pigs today.....haha. Meat on the street...when we were walking to market, this lady on the street had a whole pig cut to sell...with head under table. The big blob on bottom left is the middle of a pig...caroline had this pork in a stew for lunch. They dug out the middle of the pig and added broth and stuff....

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Some of the Mercado meal choices. I chose top right. Not pig stew that Caroline had

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Ecuadorian women in this region have the most beautiful hair...the men almost all have long beautiful braids down their backs too

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Some photos of hacienda in Otovalo

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Two hour galloping trotting dogs biting horses kicking wild ride. The top left was when Juan Carlos our horseman had to stop at his restaurant and bring back chicken soup for Andrés...we waited for the soup to be made

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Hacienda living

Otavalo Day 11

The hike is in the photos. The dinner is not. Andres is the hotel manager. He and the waiter, Umberto, took an immediate liking to us. Umberto is who told us about the hike today which was magnificent. After our hike we stopped in a tiny village for lunch. We watched the last ten minutes of Brazil/ Belgium and ordered soup....so exciting for Caroline to have Belgium win. Since there is only a tiny room for WiFi at the hacienda, we scurried back knowing cocktail hour was at 7:00. We showered and got to WiFi room around 4:45. In comes Andrés. He already has our day tomorrow mapped out for us! So we talk and talk and he insists I use Spanish...and before you know it, he orders us the most expensive glasses of wine at the Hacienda..at least we think that is what he said. Then we talk more and he brings in the clear alcohol shots...omg...we all do two of these...then to American cocktail hour in bar. There an Ecuadorian group plays folk music and they bring everyone traditional hot tea with sugar cane alcohol then anise shots! Then Andrés talks about the history of this hacienda...in family for 7 generations...250years. Simon Bolivar stayed here with his not famous lover from Otavalo many many times...the bar is the only original part of the hacienda as the rest all collapsed in an earthquake in the 1800’s and was rebuilt. So, i asked a few questions..and Andrés sent American crowd to dinner, but Caroline and I asked to stay for Ecuadorian group.so of course we did it all again, but this time dancing too...then dinner. To survive the hike Caroline and I decided we could have the pasta with mushrooms and cream sauce..we thought about the decadence all day! then finally time to email in WiFi room. I came back to room to find this beautiful fire burning in fireplace! Great day,safe in room and incredibly...not feeling like I had about six shots and two glasses of wine.

Last day tomorrow. A hike to local waterfall, a holy sight for natives, then walk to big Saturday market, then back here the two hour horse back ride at 2:00 then maybe the condor park if we aren’t exhausted.

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The bar is the only structure on property no destroyed in 1856 earthquake. Traditional hot tea with sugar cane alcohol...really not that good and only had a bit. View from my bed! Shots of this in WiFi room with hotel manager Andrés...ugh